A Litany for 2022
January 1, 2022, is simply another day.
It isn’t magic.
It comes in the morning with the rise of the sun. It closes in the evening as that very same sun sets below the horizon. We rise as the light hits our face and settle into our beds as the power of sleep overtakes us and we drift off.
Like with all days, the first day of a week, a month, a year, or a century doesn’t dismiss the current reality of our lives. There is no door to slam on the things that separate us from ourselves or others.
If we went to bed the day before in a moment of joy, we rise in delight.
If we closed our eyes or fought sleep because of resentment or regret, the reality that created those feelings doesn’t magically evaporate as we tear off yet another page on our calendar or open a new one.
When I write, I often struggle to balance what I am experiencing or feeling with what others around me are sharing with me. I try to balance it with what is going on in the world, but as I reflected on my post, 2020 Did Not Suck, I felt called toward a litany for 2022 that speaks to the individual, tiny, moments of life that make up the whole. It doesn’t matter what I am feeling today at this very moment as I write because 2022 will be created by all the new moments – the unseen, the hoped for, the unimagined. It will be created by the glad moments, the aching moments, the heated, unsatisfying, and jubilant moments.
We are not bound to a 2022 that feels just as we feel in this moment. We are not bound to what we feel in any particular moment – ever – because we are beloved children of God.
This litany is a gift to you
It is permission to simply take tomorrow as a new day, just like any other day, and to recognize that in all days the Spirit of the Holy wakes with us and walks with us, and rests with us. Whether you have grand plans for 2022 or you have abandoned the idea of fresh starts and resolutions, it is God who creates us anew again and again. It is God who completed the grand plan for us on the cross and it is God who gives a fresh start with each new breath inside each significant moment.
Thank you for being here and for reading in this moment of your life. May it be Spirit-filled and may you know that you are fully and wholly claimed by God.
A Litany for Each Day in 2022
We rise at the dawning of this new day. We slumber at its close.
We walk through our morning waking our minds. We switch off our minds to rest.
We busy ourselves with the lists and work. We disengage and daydream.
We make progress. We have setbacks.
We finish projects. We hide projects in a box.
We brighten someone’s day. We get frustrated with someone else.
Each day brings bridges. Each day brings walls.
Each day we say yes to something. Each day we say no.
Each day we make some right choices. Each day we make some wrong choices.
Each day laughter finds us. Each day we learn of sorrow.
We will give. We will take.
We will help. We will turn our heads.
We will grow. We will forget.
We will respond. We will avoid.
God of New Days,
You are present in all the ways we need you.
We don’t always see you, but there you are – as we wake and as we sleep. In our disillusionment and disregard, you have compassion, and you call us back to you.
Regardless of what each new day in 2022 brings, may we live each one knowing in our core that you have claimed us and that you love us wholly and completely.
There is no moment, no single solitary moment when you are not, and for that Lord, we give you thanks. May we spend 2022 pointed toward the cross.
May we spend 2022 hearing your voice and call to do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with you.
Convict us. Challenge us. Send us. Make us uncomfortable. Move us to respond to your calling, and through it all Lord, through each moment, may we ever know ourselves as claimed and loved children.
In the name of your Son, Jesus Christ, we pray.